[Garowe] A fishing vessel with links to China was released after two months in captivity, the Chinese embassy in Somalia confirmed, noting that 18 crew members were all recovered and are safe and sound after the worst ordeal in the deep waters.
In a statement published on X (formerly Twitter), the embassy said all crew members were rescued and are in 'good condition'. They were released following a close follow-up by the government of the People's Democratic Republic of China.
"The Chinese side strongly condemns this vicious action which threatened the safety of the crew and international navigation security, and will continue to firmly safeguard the lawful rights of Chinese citizens and enterprises overseas," the statement said.
Reports indicate the ship and its crew were hijacked in November 2024 and taken to Xaafuun district in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... , a territory in Somalia’s northeast. The pirates who took the ship later demanded a ransom of $10 million, AP reports.
It was not immediately clear if the money was paid. But the pirates have often released such vessels after hefty payment is made to their close links to avoid possible trace by the international police and other investigation agencies.
The embassy statement said "the Chinese side maintained close consultation and coordination" with federal authorities in Somalia as well as the regional government of Puntland in efforts to rescue the ship and its crew.
Cases of piracy along Somalia’s coastline have often surged in recent months, with the groups soliciting huge amounts of money from their victims. But generally, the cases are not as significant as in the past when most piracy cases were reported along the Indian Ocean coastline.
Somalia has also been dealing with unregulated fishing along its 3,333 coastline, leading to the confiscation of some fishing vessels. The United States and other European nations have maintained a strong presence in Somalia waters solely to tackle the pirates.
Somalia has for years been blighted by piracy, which peaked in 2011 when the United Nations says more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast. Incidents have declined drastically since then, however, largely due to the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.
Oil prices will no doubt drop significantly under President Trump, and running the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an expensive hobby for the House of Saud.
[IsraelTimes] Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announces plan to make concentrate used to prepare uranium fuel for nuclear reactors, after MBS said in 2018 that Riyadh would develop bomb if Iran does
Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... plans to monetize all minerals, including by selling uranium, Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday.
"We will enrich it and we will sell it and we will do a ’yellowcake,'" Prince Abdulaziz told a conference in Dhahran, referring to a powdered concentrate of the mineral used to prepare uranium fuel for nuclear reactors. It requires safe handling although it poses few radiation risks.
Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear program that it wants to expand to eventually include uranium enrichment, a sensitive area given its role in nuclear weapons. Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.
It is unclear where Saudi nuclear ambitions will end, since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... said in 2018 that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran did.
Fellow Gulf state the United Arab Emirates has the Arab world’s first multi-unit operating nuclear energy plant. The UAE has committed not to enrich uranium itself and not to reprocess spent fuel.
The kingdom said last year it planned to scrap light-touch oversight of its nuclear facilities by the UN atomic watchdog and switch to regular safeguards by the end of 2024.
Riyadh has yet to fire up its first nuclear reactor, which allows its program to still be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced states from many reporting obligations and inspections.
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[IsraelTimes] Pezeshkian to sign accord during talks with Putin in Moscow days before Trump inauguration; similarly named pact with Pyongyang has seen North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... will host his Iranian counterpart this week for the signing of a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty between Moscow and Tehran, the Kremlin said Monday.
Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will discuss plans for expanding trade and cooperation in transport, logistics and humanitarian spheres along with "acute issues on the regional and international agenda," during a visit to Moscow Friday, Russia said.
Ukraine and the West have accused Tehran of providing Moscow with hundreds of exploding drones for use on the battlefield in Ukraine and helping launch their production in Russia. The Iranian drone deliveries, which Moscow and Tehran have denied, have allowed for a barrage of long-range dronezaps on Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Iran, in turn, wants sophisticated Russian weapons like long-range air defense systems and fighter jets to help fend off possible attacks by Israel. Both countries are heavily sanctioned by the US.
Tehran has long hoped to obtain advanced Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia to upgrade its aging fleet that’s been hobbled by international sanctions, but only received a few Yak-130 trainer jets in 2023.
Pezeshkian will visit Moscow three days before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... , who has pledged to broker a peace deal on Ukraine, but who is thought likely to take a harder line against Iran.
Tehran likely hopes to secure financial and defense promises from Moscow. Putin signed a similarly named treaty with North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... last year, further strengthening his alliance with Pyongyang.
Under that agreement, both sides committed to provide military assistance in case the other was invaded or attacked. North Korea has since sent thousands of soldiers to fight against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s western Kursk region, hundreds of whom have been killed or maimed, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western intelligence.
The West and Ukraine have also long accused North Korea of sending millions of artillery shells and missile components to Russia.
The trip comes with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... facing increasing pressure as Israeli military planners flirt with the possibility of taking action against the country’s nuclear program following previous strikes that knocked out many of its air defense batteries.
The last several months have also seen Iran’s so-called "axis of resistance" shattered after attempting to open up a multi-front war against Israel in support of the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... terror group in 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... Iran’s economy remains in tatters after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018, and also ordered the killing of an IRGC general in a dronezap in Iraq in early 2020.
At a summit of the BRICS group in Kazan last year, Putin told Pezeshkian he valued "truly friendly and constructive ties" between Russia and Iran.
However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... there has been growing discontent over Russia within Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force answerable only to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> Last week, an audio recording leaked into the Iranian media with a Guard general blaming Russia for many of the woes Iran had suffered in Syria.
On Friday, Iranian state TV showed the head of the Guards touring an underground missile plant in Iran and claiming that production had ramped up, denying claims that Israel’s strikes had harmed its ability to produce new weapons.
Iran was set to hold nuclear talks with La Belle France, Britannia and Germany in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... on Monday. Since the US pulled out of the deal, Iran has enriched large stockpiles of uranium to 60 purity, a level with no civilian application, and only a short step away from weapons-grade levels.
In January, US news website Axios reported that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan had presented President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant.... with options for a potential US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran moved toward developing an atomic weapon before January 20, when Trump takes office.
[IsraelTimes] Hind Rajab Foundation claims Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian guilty of genocide, war crimes for overseeing blockade on Gaza, citing ‘human animals’ comment made at start of war
An anti-Israel, pro-Paleostinian organization said it had asked Italian authorities to arrest a senior Israeli general allegedly visiting Rome, the latest in a string of attempts to target Israelis with criminal prosecution over the war in 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... The Hind Rajab Foundation,
…a project launched last October by the March 30 Movement, itself named in memory of the Palestinian general strike on that date in 1976 in the West Bank against the Israeli government, since referred to as Land Day. Both groups are lawfare boiler rooms generating endless laswsuits against Israelis and those who support Israel in Western Europe and elsewhere, and between times propagandizing against Israel using the currently fashionable far left shibboleths. March 30 is the hobby of lawyer Haroon Raza, appearing at the end of 2023, but at bottom it’s a Hezbollah front founded by Dyab Abou Jahjah (Dyab Abu Jahjah), a serial founder of Hezbollah fronts — his first, the Arab European League, was stirring up trouble between Moslem colonists and native Europeans since 2002……
which has sparked alarm in Israel by seeking the arrest of Israelis traveling abroad over alleged war crimes, claimed to have filed a case with unspecified "Italian authorities" against Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, a Defense Ministry body known by its acronym COGAT.
The foundation said it also filed a case with the International Criminal Court in the Hague against Alian, asking it to issue an international arrest warrant for "genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."
There was no immediate comment from Italian judicial authorities or from The Hague on the request.
In a statement announcing the request, the foundation claimed that Alian played a key role in overseeing policies the ICC has previously deemed warrant the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
"Following October 7, 2023, he supervised and enforced a total siege on Gaza, cutting off essential resources such as food, water, electricity and medical supplies," it said.
"Under Alian’s leadership, COGAT coordinated military actions that targeted civilian infrastructure and imposed collective punishment on Gaza’s population.".
COGAT is responsible for Israel’s day-to-day management of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the entry of humanitarian aid and other goods into the Strip.
The complaint also noted a statement made by Alian on October 10, 2023, in which he fumed at Gazooks celebrating the slaughter of Israelis days earlier and called the action of Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... bully boyz "not human."
"Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction," he said then. "You wanted hell, you will get hell."
[IsraelTimes] European Jewish Association head says 40K have already left Europe over antisemitism in recent years, with serious measures needed to ensure rest of community doesn’t follow.
The article unfortunately has none of the details that would interest us, like where they all went.
[NY Post] A Muslim cleric who refused to call Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has a “significant history of extremism” has been tapped to deliver a benediction at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
Husham Al-Husainy, the imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn, Mich., is among four religious leaders listed in an Inauguration Day program, obtained by the Washington Reporter on Monday, who are scheduled to speak immediately after Trump’s Jan. 20 address.
The Middle East Forum, a conservative nonprofit focused on Islamic issues, has described Al-Husainy as “a radical anti-Semitic, pro-Hezbollah Shia imam” with “a significant history of extremism.”
The group claims that Al-Husainy hosted a 2015 rally at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center where he “wished death upon Saudi Arabia” for its military intervention in Yemen.
Al-Husainy also attended a 2006 “pro-Hezbollah rally” in Dearborn, during which he allegedly held a photo of then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on stage, according to the Islam watchdog.
Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last September.
A year later – after Al-Husainy delivered a controversial invocation at the Democratic National Committee’s 2007 winter meeting – Fox News host Sean Hannity blasted the imam for suggesting US forces were “oppressors and occupiers.”
Al-Husainy denied he was making a veiled reference to the United States or the Iraq War when he asked God to “help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation” at the DNC event.
When asked by Hannity to “admit that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization,” Al-Husainy refused.
“That is your explanation,” he responded during his 2007 “Hannity and Colmes” appearance.
“Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization. And I’ve got nothing to do with that,” Al-Husainy added.
“But there is a biblical meaning of Hezbollah. It is in Judaism and Christianity and Islam meaning people of God and that means yes,” he explained – dodging Hannity’s repeated attempts to pin him down on answering whether the group was a terrorist organization.
The US State Department designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997.
Al-Husainy, who is Iraqi American, voiced his support for Trump, 78, last October during a Republican media call, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“I am supporting Donald Trump because he opposes gay marriage and he is the most Christian person in the election,” Al-Husainy said of his support for the 45th president. “He will return us to conservative values, and I am a Muslim and I will stand with whoever opposes gay marriage.”
Trump has not called for a federal ban on gay marriage.
The Post attempted to reach out to Al-Husainy for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
#1
Calling this Imam 'extremist' is incorrect IMHO.
He is an advocate of Islamic theocratic totalitarian despotism and an enemy of human rights and civil rights as defined by Western Civilization.
But this position is mainstream in the Islamic world. It is a position held by many Islamic states including those who are the leading forces in the OIC.
It is also a position as least tolerated by a majority in the UNGA.
Good. Because this is only a small part of what they fund across the array of Black Bloc projects, all of which is actively evil.
[IsraelTimes] A New York nonprofit that facilitates funding for anti-Israel groups across the US says its survival is threatened by lawsuits.
WESPAC, a progressive nonprofit in Westchester County, serves as a financial clearinghouse for leading anti-Israel groups including National Students for Justice in Paleostine and Within Our Lifetime.
Since the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, Jewish groups and Congress have pressured WESPAC due to its anti-Israel activities. A lawsuit in New York court, for example, is suing WESPAC, NSJP and the leader of Within Our Lifetime for damages related to protests at Columbia University.
WESPAC sends out an "urgent request" to its supporters asking for funding to cover legal expenses, claiming the group is named in four lawsuits.
"WESPAC’s work has taken on enormous significance since October 7, 2023, as the injustice of apartheid has turned to genocide in 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... ," the group says. "The well-funded forces of darkness are now waging legal warfare against us."
"The threat to WESPAC’s survival is real," the message says, asking for $90,000 from supporters to "protect WESPAC from the precipice."
In addition to private lawsuits, members of Congress have called for investigations into WESPAC’s nonprofit status, saying members of its network support Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , a US-designated terror group.
WESPAC serves as a fiscal sponsor for anti-Israel groups that do not have nonprofit status themselves, an arrangement that allows WESPAC to receive and disperse tax-exempt donations for those groups. Fiscal sponsorships do not require financial disclosures from the recipients, allowing the anti-Israel groups to keep their finances out of public view.
WESPAC had nearly $2.4 million in revenue between September 2022 and August 2023, the most recent period for which tax filings are available.
At least that’s what they show in the account books they share with the IRS.
The group has served as a fiscal sponsor for more than a dozen anti-Israel groups across the US in recent years.
#1
Wouldn't it be neat if there was a Court Rule/Law.
If a person/group is proven to be abusing the court system for Politic agenda (LAWFARE) and not seeking actual for $$$ damages incurred, or Justice for a actual crime. Then that person or group, is automatically fined or sentenced 2x the amount they were seeking or demanded.
eg. Like Jack Smith, or Ms. Fanny, BLM, ANTI-FA etc. paying out
$$ Millions, and/ or having to serve say 10+ years in the accommodations they shalt to impose on others.
[Jpost] Despite claims of an agreement being reached, the shipment was reportedly delayed due to Turkey’s close monitoring of threats to drone shipments.
Iran has reportedly agreed to supply 1,500 suicide drones to the Kurdish YPG/PKK group in Syria to counter Turkey’s military operations, a journalist of conservative Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak, known for its support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), reported on Sunday.
I that likely, or is the Turkish press making stuff up agqin?
The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) is a left-wing militia fighting for Kurdish independence in northeast Syria, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey, historically areas populated by ethnic Kurds.
The YPG (People's Defense Units) is a US-backed militia that controls areas of northeast Syria under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Turkey's AKP views both groups as "terror" organizations.
An alleged meeting between Iranian representatives and the Kurdish organization reportedly took place in a market in Iraq, where the Kurds reportedly requested 2,000 drones. According to the unverified report, Iran clarified it could only provide 1,500 units.
Despite claims of an agreement being reached, the shipment was reportedly delayed due to Turkey’s close monitoring and its threat to intercept any drone transfers into Syria. Determined to block the deal, Turkey’s reported efforts have brought cooperation between Iran and the YPG/PKK to a standstill, as per the report.
The report further claimed that, under Turkish pressure, the YPG/PKK has shifted to an alternative strategy - transporting drones in separate parts to avoid detection. However, the success of this strategy remains in doubt due to Turkey’s continued operations along the border.
A RESURGENCE OF ISIS IN SYRIA?
Abdul Rahman, a Syrian news analyst, cautioned that Yeni Şafak's unverified report could mark the return of ISIS near Damascus for the first time since 2018, when the Assad regime regained control of the area. “The resurgence of ISIS in the capital’s vicinity signals a new threat under the current administration and intensifies Syria’s mounting security challenges,” he warned.
Rahman also noted that a stockpile of weapons from the Assad regime remains hidden and now poses a “ticking time bomb” that threatens Syria’s fragile transition. He further suggested that remnants of militias, once aligned with the regime, are suspected of operating terror cells and maintaining ties with external actors.
Let us all pause to be grateful that the IDF has already destroyed so much of the Syrian stockpile accumulated by the Assads, père et fil.
The situation on the ground is particularly troubling amid the growing spread of ISIS cells across various regions in Syria. There is mounting concern that the resulting security chaos could undermine the country’s stability during this sensitive period of political transition.
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[IsraelTimes] ‘There is broad support for a two-state solution, but the international community must do more,’ Norwegian FM says ahead of summit; new PA prime minister, UNRWA chief set to attend.
[IsraelTimes] The hostage-ceasefire deal could begin with the release of three hostages held by Hamas, following which the IDF will begin withdrawing from populated areas in Gaza, the BBC reports.
The report, citing a Palestinian official, says that after one week, Hamas will release another four hostages and Israel will begin allowing the return of displaced Gazans from the south to the north.
The report says they will be allowed to travel up the coastal road on foot only.
Cars, animal-drawn carts, and trucks will be allowed to cross through a passage adjacent to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team, the report says.
The report also says that Israel will release 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including approximately 190 who have been serving sentences of 15 years or more.
The report says Hamas would free 34 hostages in the first phase. Israeli officials put the number at 33.
The Times of Israel has more here. But what odds, dear Reader, that Hamas blows the whole thing up before even the first hostage is returned? How much higher odds that it doesn’t last a week? A month?
Israeli officials: Deal will see 33 hostages freed in 1st stage, most of them alive. Negotiations to free remaining captives to begin on 16th day of potential ceasefire deal; talks advanced after ‘tense’ meeting between Netanyahu, Trump envoy, officials tell ToI.
“It will not happen. Period,” the statement reads.
Earlier today, the Saudi outlet Al-Hadath published an unconfirmed report that Hamas is demanding the body of Sinwar in the first stage of the hostage deal
Holding signs that read “You don’t have a mandate to surrender to Hamas,” the demonstrators urge the government not to sign a deal that will see Israel halt the fighting and free hundreds or even thousands of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for hostages.
Others hold up pictures of their loved ones with the caption, “Their deaths command us to victory.”
Among those demonstrating are members of the hawkish Tikva forum, a group of hostage families who want Israel to use overwhelming force to bring down Hamas.
[IsraelTimes] Funds will be used to pay off debt to Israel Electric Corporation; both sides declare victory after agreeing to mechanism that US hopes can be used for release of additional money
Israel and the Paleostinian Authority announced Sunday that they had struck a deal allowing for the release of roughly $500 million in Paleostinian tax revenues for use in electricity and fuel payments to Israel.
Both sides framed the agreement as a victory after months of negotiations, which US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... ’s administration helped mediate, according to a senior Western diplomat familiar with the matter, who said the goal was to use the deal as a framework for the release of additional funds that Israel has been withholding from the PA.
Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s Finance Ministry collects tax revenues on behalf of the PA and makes monthly transfers to Ramallah, but a dispute broke out over the payments in the wake of Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... ’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
The Israeli cabinet refused to transfer the portion of the funds that Ramallah uses to pay for services and employees in 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... , arguing that the money could reach the Hamas terror group. The roughly $75 million in revenues amounts to about a quarter of the entire monthly transfer.
Protesting the move, the PA refused to accept any of the tax revenues, which make up the vast majority of the PA’s annual budget. Unable to pay its employees in full for months, the move has risked Ramallah’s complete financial collapse.
In January 2024, the cabinet approved a framework under which the Gaza portion of the funds would be transferred to Norway, which would then be required to hold onto the funds until Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed off on their release to the PA.
That mechanism worked for several months, and Smotrich signed off on the release of some of those funds from Norway to the PA.
But then in May, Norway joined Spain and Ireland in formally recognizing a Paleostinian state, infuriating Jerusalem. Smotrich in response announced the end of the agreement involving Norway.
Oslo still had roughly $420 million in Paleostinian tax revenues in its possession, but the Israeli Finance Ministry warned that if those funds were transferred to the PA, Israel would dock that money from subsequent monthly tax revenue transfers.
With the PA’s financial state particularly bleak in the year since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, significant efforts were made by the US to secure the release of those funds. Washington sought to recruit Morocco to replace Norway, but this idea was eventually shelved in favor of the current formula that has removed the middle-man, the Western diplomat said.
More recently, Israel proposed allowing the release of the funds if they were used to pay off the massive amounts of debt that the PA owes to Israeli electric and fuel companies that have accumulated over time due to various Paleostinian municipalities’ failure to make their payments.
Ramallah initially chafed at the idea, wanting more autonomy over how to spend the funds. Ultimately, though, it caved after Israel made clear it would not accept the release of the money held up in Norway under any other circumstances, the diplomat said.
Sweetening the deal for the PA, though, is the fact that the payment of the debt to the Israeli fuel and electricity companies improves Ramallah’s standing with Paleostinian banks who now see that it is capable of paying off such debts when adjudicating future loan requests.
The released funds, which have accumulated interest over time, will go toward paying off fuel and electricity debt in addition to covering such payments in the months ahead, the Israeli and PA finance ministries said in their respective announcements. Smotrich’s office said the deal resulted in the payoff of $544 million in debt to Israel. He updated the cabinet of the deal on Sunday.
"The PA’s debt to the [Israel Electric Corportation] resulted in high loans and interest rates, as well as damage to IEC’s credit, which was ultimately rolled over to the citizens of Israel," Smotrich told the cabinet, according to the statement from his office.
The agreement doesn’t release the Gaza portion of Paleostinian tax revenues that Israel has continued to withhold since the Norwegian agreement fell apart. However,
ars longa, vita brevis... the Western diplomat said the goal is to use the new framework so that those funds can be used for electricity and fuel payments in the future.
Smotrich has been opposed to sending funds to the PA, which uses the money to pay public sector wages. The withheld funds forced the PA to drastically cut public sector wages for months.
Israel also deducts funds equal to the total amount of so-called martyr payments, which the PA pays to families of Paleostinian holy warriors or the families of slain attackers.
The PA finance ministry said $570 million remains withheld by Israel, bringing the total withheld funds to over $980 million as of 2024.
"This has exacerbated the financial crisis, as the government continues to transfer these allocations directly to the accounts of public servants in Gaza," the ministry said, adding that it was working with international partners to secure the release of these funds as soon as possible.
[GEO.TV] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is set to hold nuclear talks with La Belle France, Britannia and Germany on Monday, just a week before US President-elect Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... takes office.
They are the second round of talks over Iran's nuclear programme in less than two months, following a discreet meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , in November between Tehran and the three European powers, known as the E3.
"These are not negotiations," the German foreign ministry told AFP. Iran has similarly emphasised that the talks are merely "consultations".
The talks, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, will cover a "wide range of topics," Iran's foreign ministry front man Esmaeil Baqaei said during a weekly press briefing.
"The primary objective of these talks is to remove the sanctions" on Iran, he noted, adding that Iran was also "listening to the [...] topics that the opposite parties want to raise".
On Thursday, La Belle France's foreign ministry said the meeting was a sign that the E3 countries "are continuing to work toward a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme, the progress of which is extremely problematic".
The talks come as Iran's nuclear programme received renewed focus in light of Trump's imminent return to the White House on January 20.
During his first term, Trump had pursued a policy of "maximum pressure", withdrawing the US from a landmark nuclear deal which imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington's withdrawal, but then began rolling back its commitments.
Efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear pact have since faltered and European officials have repeatedly expressed frustrations over Tehran's non-compliance.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2025 00:00 ||
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"We need to get our story straight. People have been selling sanctioned equipment, and we need to have the excuses ready."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/14/2025 10:38 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Women’s rights activist Nahid Taghavi, 70, returns to Germany after four years of detention; Olivier Grondeau, 34, identifies himself in recorded phone call broadcast on French TV
A German-Iranian woman held in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... for over four years has returned to Germany, her family said Monday, while a Frenchie detained by the Islamic Theocratic Republic since October 2022 revealed his identity in an audio message and said he was exhausted by his ordeal.
Western countries have for years accused Iran of detaining their nationals on trumped-up charges in a policy of state hostage-taking to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.
Iran announced on Sunday that a national held in Italia on a US extradition warrant had returned home. Days earlier, an Italian journalist was released from a Tehran jail, following intense diplomatic efforts by Rome.
German-Iranian woman Nahid Taghavi, 70, returned to Germany on Sunday after four years of detention in Iran, her family said. Taghavi, a long-time activist who campaigned for women’s rights and freedom of expression, was arrested in Tehran in October 2020. In August 2021, she was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison for participating in an outlawed group.
"Words cannot describe our joy," her daughter Mariam Claren said. "At the same time, we mourn the four years that were stolen from us and the horror she had to endure in Evin prison," she added.
Her release comes months after the death of Iran-born German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd sparked a diplomatic dispute between Tehran and Berlin, with Germany recalling its ambassador and closing three consulates in the country.
Sharmahd, kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates in July 2020 by Iranian agents, according to the family and the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention, was executed on October 28 on the charge of "corruption on earth," according to the news site of the Iranian judiciary. But the judiciary later said while his execution was imminent that he had died before it could be carried out.
’RUNNING OUT’
French national Olivier Grondeau, 34, had previously only been identified by his first name and French authorities had not released details of his case.
In a recording aired on La Belle France Inter on Monday of a December 19, 2024 phone call, Grondeau fully identified himself and warned that he and the other two French detainees held in Iran were "exhausted."
The other two Frenchies are teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, who were detained in May 2022. They are accused of seeking to stir up labor protests, accusations their families have vehemently denied.
"You, who have the power to influence this matter, hear this truth," he said in the audio message, apparently addressing the French authorities.
"Cecile’s strength, Jacques’ strength, Olivier’s strength — it is all running out," he said. "Your responsibility is called upon to ensure the survival of three human beings," he said.
Grondeau was arrested in Shiraz, in southern Iran, in October 2022, and sentenced to five years in prison for "conspiracy against the Islamic Theocratic Republic," his mother Therese Grondeau told La Belle France Inter.
His family rejects the charges, describing Grondeau as a passionate fan of Persian poetry traveling to Iran on a tourist visa as part of a world tour.
What an idiotic thing to do. If he wanted to discuss Persian poetry, there are plenty of Iranians at the royal court, which alternates between Paris and Maryland, where there’s no risk of being held for ransom.
On Friday, La Belle France summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest Tehran’s holding of the trio, describing them as "state hostages."
This is a hugely sensitive moment in relations between Iran and the West, days before US President-elect Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... comes to power. Iran is set Monday to hold talks on its contested nuclear program in Geneva with European powers La Belle France, Britannia and Germany.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the country has in recent years increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium, and it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said. That level is well on the way to the 90% required for an atomic bomb and beyond anything needed for a civilian nuclear program.
[NAHARNET] Syria's new ruler and Lebanon's prime minister have pledged to build lasting ties during the first visit by a Lebanese head of government to Damascus since the civil war started in 2011.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati's trip came after Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month, bringing an end to the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
Previous Lebanese governments refrained from visits to Syria amid tensions at home over militant group Hezbollah's support for Assad during the conflict.
Syria's new leader Ahmad al-Sharaa said he hoped to turn over a new leaf in relations, days after crisis-hit Lebanon finally elected a president this week following two years of deadlock.
"There will be long-term strategic relations between us and Lebanon. We and Lebanon have great shared interests," said Sharaa.
It was time to "give the Syrian and Lebanese people a chance to build a positive relationship," he said, adding he hoped Joseph Aoun's presidency would usher in an era of stability in Lebanon.
Sharaa said the new Syria would "stay at equal distance from all" in Lebanon, and "try to solve problems through negotiations and dialogue."
Mikati said ties should be based on "mutual respect, equality and national sovereignty."
The new authorities in Syria also said Sharaa had phoned Aoun to congratulate him Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2025 00:00 ||
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Arabs swearing eternal friendship - this should be interesting.
[NAHARNET] Prominent Lebanese diplomat and judge Nawaf Salam was named PM-designate on Monday after he won sweeping support from legislators, as Hezbollah accused some parties of "staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion."
They noticed.
The Presidency, which issued a decree naming Salam as PM-designate, said the latter received 84 votes as caretaker PM Najib Mikati received only nine votes and 35 MPs refrained from naming anyone.
Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice and his nomination was made by Western-backed groups as well as independents in the Lebanese parliament. Salam is backed by Saudi Arabia and western countries.
Monday's nomination of Salam during binding consultations with President Joseph Aoun is a major blow to Hezbollah, which is also a powerful political party, after its militant wing was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel.
Salam will have a difficult mission ahead of him, as Lebanon truce with Israel that ended the nearly Israel-Hezbollah war. Salam will also have to work on getting the small nation out of its historic five-year economic meltdown.
Salam's nomination and last week's selection of the country's army commander Aoun as president is likely to lead to flow of funds from Western and oil-rich Arab nations to Lebanon to help in the reconstruction process.
Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc meanwhile voiced regret over the manner in which Salam was nominated.
''Our meeting with the president was to express our regret over those who want to harm the presidential tenure's consensual start,'' the head of the bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said after the bloc's meeting with Aoun.
According to media reports, the bloc asked for the postponement of its meeting with Aoun until Tuesday before eventually reversing its decision.
''Once again some are staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion, in a deliberate and spiteful manner,'' Raad decried.
''We made a positive step upon the election of the president and we were hoping to meet the hand that had always boasted about being extended, but it suddenly was severed,'' the MP added.
''It is our right to demand a government to respect the National Pact, and any government that contradicts with coexistence has no legitimacy. We will monitor and carry on with all due calm and wisdom and we will watch their actions for removing the occupier from our land, returning the captives, reconstruction and the correct implementation of 1701 in a manner that preserves national unity,'' Raad went on to say.
[Jpost] A thousand new drones were delivered to Iran’s army on Monday, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported, as the country braces for more friction with arch-enemy Israel and the United States under incoming US president Donald Trump.
A tiny fraction of what the IDF destroyed in this war that Iran caused to be started, but it is a beginning. And it gives the IDF a new target when they were perhaps starting to become.
The drones were delivered to various locations throughout Iran and are said to have high stealth and anti-fortification abilities, according to Tasnim.
“The drones’ unique features, including a range of over 2,000 km., high destructive power, the ability to pass through defense layers with a low radar cross-section, and autonomous flight, not only increase the depth of reconnaissance and border monitoring but also boost the combat capability of the army’s drone fleet in confronting distant targets,” the news agency added.
The drones were also manufactured within Iran by the Iranian military, scientists, and “innovators,” according to the news agency.
This comes after Iran’s defense industry revealed a new suicide drone – the Razvan – last week.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
01/14/2025 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.
[Garowe] A fishing vessel with links to China was released after two months in captivity, the Chinese embassy in Somalia confirmed, noting that 18 crew members were all recovered and are safe and sound after the worst ordeal in the deep waters.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
